Clutching at that last strand of straw,
I looked up to see,
The heights I had traversed,
To reach such a low.
The strand lookin’ at me smiled and I couldn't read,
That look was eerie, and I asked of it,
“I'd give you anything you wanted if only you would not break now”,
That smile turned to peals of diabolic laughter.
And like the sands of time running down a clock,
The grains of the strand started falling,
And as I closed my eyes, waiting for the last straw to break,
Thought maybe now I'll rest in peace.
But a long while later, I still realized,
That straw held firm, I was still alive,
There were now not one but a clutch of them,
Entwining themselves into a bunch.
I watched in amazement and equal despair,
Wondering what on earth was going on,
The straws got stronger, the bunch turned into rope now,
I could still make no sense.
Looking down now, that straw barked,
"What more need I do dear man?,
You've a rope and all you need is to pull yourself up again,
Can't you do that even, to live?"
As if out of slumber I awoke then,
Still not knowing what was goin’ on,
Pulling myself up, up, up and over,
I got myself over the edge again
As I lay down on the grass, wondering what had happened,
I heard the straws quietly muttering,
"Well done fellas, we've done atleast our bit,
The last bit of action for us albeit
The sheep of the man'll be here again tomorrow,
To chomp us off till the last bit"
I still was dazed, but I got up and walked away,
Not knowing what to do or what to say.
On the way I heard a cry of anguish and pain,
As I saw a knife stabbed into someone's heart.
That was from a fellow-man and as the victim bled to death,
All I did was to watch on.
Man'll always be man, superior and gifted,
He'll find out new things no one's ever done,
But he'll never understand, never ever understand,
The smile he got from the last straw.
I never quite managed to poetically word these lines... Guess I wasn't too inclined to the aesthetics of poetry when I worte them...
Kiran
